Nobody
by Barunka
Summary: AU; ShinoKiba.
1. Chapter 1

It wasn't the way he always kicked Shino to the ground, nor was it the fact that Inuzuka Kiba was younger and smaller than him. He had such a swinish personality, that even his own sister was repulsed by him, but Shino – no, he couldn't say _liked_ him, since his psyche would be thrown into self-destruction and indignity by such a statement. There was just something about Kiba, something that compelled Shino to allow himself to be beaten up, insulted, ridiculed, to be called a faggot and a fucking weirdo.

But despite all of that, Shino was duly aware that Hana knew her brother well, so he followed her orders without question.

Hana stripped Shino of his glasses – but she didn't just remove them, she _stripped _him of them. Suddenly he felt exposed – as she pushed down the shapeless coat, in which he'd been hiding, down his hesitant shoulders. Just her amicable smile and the impersonal contact of her fingers with his body allowed him not to burn in shame.

She removed a pair of unworn jeans from his closet, which she had cut in some places, along with a plain white top, that she tossed to Shino. _Then_ she turned around to give him privacy, but it was too late for that, since he already felt ignoble and bared.

Instead of his trademark baggy clothing, he now stood before her in skinny jeans and a form-fitting top.

He felt miserable. Wrong. _Sick. _He had been forced to reveal his illogically black eyes; his abysmal, impenetrable eyes.

Hana glanced back, smiling as she ruffled his hair soothingly.

The unpleasant strident _now_ enrobed him into normality, changed him on the outside and prepared him for the separation from himself; granting him a release from an eternity of subordination and wounds.

The night was now above them. Shino locked his room door and snuck out of the Aburame residence with Hana through the window. It was time for them to part ways, so Hana went home. Shino's journey had barely begun and yet his palms were sweaty, although he was robed very poorly for an autumnal nighttime. He was attacked by the coldness, which nearly stung, until _The Rainbow_ swallowed him, and devoured his irresolution as well as his impatience.

The club was dark, unlit and there were six lines of phosphorescent colours crawling alongside the walls. An ingratiating, ardent music occupied his stomach with vibrations of malaise. He didn't belong there. He bloody didn't want to. Still, he had stayed and stared. Here – in the tangle of bodies, in the riot of sweat, orgasms, humans and latex skin, in tones of the dance, clouds of smoke and the ocean of alcohol – Shino was average; less than that. As an Aburame, he was shamefully straightforward, but in this club, he was comically insipid. His transformation had become unexceptional.

He felt somewhat isolated from the world, again.

White words were floating through the darkness, and they were white, because every one of them was coercing itself with a sharp contrast into Shino's head; each yes, each no, every absinthe-flavored lust.

It was eating him alive.

The vivid aroma of the crowd was adhering to him, but it didn't matter – the scent was ubiquitous, anyway.

Then he saw him.

Standing by one of the six colour-screaming columns was a rotten innocence. An alarming insecurity, bitten lip, the fear-modified eyes – the Inuzuka in the position of the submissive one. He was waiting; he was just... _himself_.

Shino understood.

The abominable imitation of a humane being, who had demolished Shino's mentality into the void, was an ordinary boy right now. A boy who had been voluntarily offering himself and couldn't wait to be dominated by a stranger.

A vulnerable Kiba.

And Shino finally understood the necessity of his transformation.

He walked to up Kiba and the boy looked up voicelessly. His lower lip was still imprisoned by a shy bite and his eyes were full of sex and nervousness. Shino rested his palm on a column someplace above Kiba's head, and his other – traitorous – hand ran over Kiba's cheek. Shino, in the most pragmatic sense of his own self-preservation, hadn't the right to give the Inuzuka such tenderness; yet he didn't stop himself. Kiba breathed out lightly, he leaned into the subtle touch. His slightly narrowed sight was captivated by Shino.

"I'm Kiba," he said softly and freed his red, ravaged lip. His voice was docile, it held an inquisitive tone, which asked Shino for his name.

"I'm nobody," Shino whispered.

Kiba only nodded. Then Shino's fingers intertwined with Kiba's, and the brutal bully let Shino lead him out of the club. There was no rebellion or barky laugh as Shino led him out into the crisp night air. They walked through the unlit streets, and at the end of their path was a little motel with a reserved room, which Hana had booked beforehand.

Shino didn't need to turn the lights on; he could see Kiba's tamed ferocity and his sudden beauty even in this darkness. The scattered glow of the nocturnal city was making it for him easier, anyway.

He dragged Kiba to himself, slowly and carefully. He pulled the zipper of Kiba's leather jacket down, revealing his sinewy torso and a thin chain, which was hanging round Kiba's neck. He let Kiba strip him of his white top, as he did so with a mild reluctance.

Was it strange, that Shino was more attracted to the Inuzuka when Kiba possessed some control?

They continued in a pantomime of erratic undressing, until they confronted each other – completely naked, aroused, and in that moment Shino, in an act of desperation, connected their eager mouths into a deep kiss. He embraced Kiba's warm back, while Inuzuka's hands tentatively pawed Shino's bare arms.

It was aberrant, not amatory. They were strangers, yet they weren't – they were nearest to being enemies, actually.

Kiba's mouth was willing and moist, his lips silken _and_ bruised; their kisses evoked oblivion and sadness. Shino's right hand found itself in Kiba's hair, spoiling his docile Inuzuka with caresses, whilst his left hand was wrapped around Kiba's waist, with the comical notion of never letting go.

Abruptly, Shino positioned himself above Kiba, the Inuzuka's knees bent on both of Shino's sides. Kiba submitted to Shino without any protests and his hardness was rubbing against Shino's abdomen. Shino moved provocatively in a deficient imitation of sex, awaking the insanity in either of them. He tortured Kiba's throat with tip of his tongue, sliding from his jaw to Kiba's small chain, and back again. He held Kiba's ruffled hair, then his thighs, and the Inuzuka was moaning – helplessly.

A finger, slicked with saliva, fought its way into Kiba's resisting tightness, the second after the first, and Kiba whined and bucked towards Shino in the limited space Shino's lanky body left him. He grasped Shino's scruff and sweetly, thoughtlessly stroked Shino's black, unruly hair.

After the third finger, Kiba arched his back, interrupting the heavy, spontaneous silence.

"I... want you in me," he _pleaded_, and without glancing up he absentmindedly nuzzled the juncture where Shino's neck and shoulder met.

Shino's brain went comatose.

He put on a lubricated condom, propped Kiba's legs up, causing him to gasp weakly, and spread them maximally – much to Kiba's thrill and chagrin. Shino positioned himself to Kiba's snug entrance and then he pushed _in_.

Shino felt like a voyeur. Yes, Kiba was currently his, and there was no one else beside them, but Shino wasn't 'Shino' to Kiba, and Shino knew he wasn't just 'nobody', too.

He was a weirdo, that was all.

Observing the perfection under him, he listened to Kiba's moans yet he was guiltily distant, even though he was buried inside Kiba.

Heated flesh and smooth skin, wet kisses, breathless mouths and roaming hands. Shino clenched Kiba's thighs and put Kiba in acid humiliation because of the submissiveness of his position. Shino buried himself deeper, and deeper. Kiba was penetrating Shino's thoughts, and Shino was penetrating Kiba.

He was giving his virginity – to Kiba, the repugnant epitome of vileness and dominance; but it was Shino who was _taking_ him, degrading him, loving him... loving him so painfully.

Kiba whined, the oncoming climax whispered through his body, he almost – almost –

"I wanna scream your name," he groaned openly.

Shino merely sped up their tempo, grimacing.

"You would hate yourself," he uttered. He couldn't tell him.

Kiba came, hard. He stained Shino's pale skin, but Shino didn't stop moving; which caused Kiba to whine longer and louder, with that raspy voice that brought Shino to his orgasm.

Breathing – for what seemed like a lifetime, there existed nothing but breathing. Subsequently, Shino got off of Kiba with a smile full of self-hatred, emptiness, violated morals and a minuscule satisfaction. He sat on the edge of bed, his head in hands and his hands in his hair and his hair sweaty. He rolled the used condom off.

Shino was worn out. He put his clothes on quietly. Kiba was still lying on the bed, spent, and Shino reached down to capture his lips in a chaste kiss.

It was the end.

Several steps led him face-to-face with the door, and he glanced back with his hand on the doorknob.

"Aburame Shino... That is the name you wanted to scream," he stated in a sotto voce, before he walked out of that darned room.

In the thick air of the foreign bedroom, Kiba sat up rapidly in confusion.

Kiba didn't victimize him for now, he didn't even shout an insult through the paper-thin wall. The shock must have been intense.

Splendid.

The stairs seemed endless, paradoxically more endless than when he and Kiba had first went up them, hastily and impatiently.

For the third time that night, the cold autumn wind made him shiver. There weren't a lot of leaves, though; Shino lived in a city and he could only imagine those red and gold colours. He walked aimlessly through the dark streets. Everything was grey – so grey.

He creeped into his room and fell asleep arduously, the flavour of Kiba still teased his tongue and his face went blank.

_'Thank you, Hana'_, the cellphone beeped somewhere near Hana's bed.

It hadn't always been like this between the Inuzuka siblings. And Kiba would never, ever have dared to drag Hana out of the bed before, while smashing his fist into her jaw.

When they were kids, they had loved each other, but the moment Kiba's father had left the family and his responsibilities, Kiba had become a brat. He knew it as well, and he planned to go on living his life like this: to not give a damn about anything, to end up under some handsome guy from time to time and to ventilate his wrath without any remorse.

He resolutely _didn't_ plan to end up as a whiny fag with the Aburame buried in his ass.

Not when he had been bullying him for _years_.

Not when none of his closest friends even knew Kiba was gay.

"You sent him there, bitch!" Kiba hissed and he wasn't exactly asking. It was evident. The remnants of the irony laughed at him.

Hana stared at him insolently, however blandly and fearfully. The punch had hurt like hell.

She remained numb, and she didn't hit him back, although she was older, and more of a mother-figure than their own irresponsible, inanely happy mother could ever be.

Throwing his sister back onto her bed, Kiba furiously stormed out of her bedroom. He burst into his own room and laid down, inhaling deeply. He could still sense him – could still feel him inside.

The aversion never came. Kiba didn't mentally throw up because of the _Aburame_ had him. Was he in shock? Yes. Was he humiliated, defiant and harboring an immense shame? Definitely. He discredited himself – his facade had fallen apart and now Aburame Shino knew every scar of his personality by heart and he had recognized Kiba's lies. And yet the idea of sex with Aburame didn't bother him, no matter how woeful a nerd he was. Oddly enough, he couldn't add in any jokes about the Aburame's looks at present.

Kiba was finally _able_ to reach his climax again, after a few bloody months of sleeping with selfish and lousy lovers.

The damned Aburame had made him come.

And every time Kiba stirred or trembled that night, it was as if a living echo of Aburame's cock disrupted his breathing.


	2. Chapter 2

Shino have always wanted to grow up being a good man, as well as his father was. Though he was sure he would never search through the dating agency to find a nice partner for his homosexual son.

"I do not wish to have a relationship," Shino said stiffly to his father.

He had his brash and tattooed obsession in school, after all.

"Shikuro had already wrote back to the ad. I assumed you would appreciate to know," replied Shibi, unperturbed

In spite of Shino's innate apathy, he raised his eyebrows in an ugly wave of panic, leafing through the newspaper. He found the marked ad and sighed, defeated.

Shino never wanted to grow up being the kind of man that Shikuro was.

* * *

Feeling numb and miserable, Kiba groaned. The subway forced its heavy hum into his ears even past his earphones.

He didn't dare to imagine his forthcoming confrontation with the Aburame, yet the moment was undoubtedly closer and closer with every minute.

* * *

Shino was – traditionally – taciturn.

He was sitting in his usual place, reading in the textbook as he always did before the class started. He was restrained and unobtrusive, which was normal for him. No one had asked him how his weekend was, nor anyone tried to talk with him. Even if there were someone so audacious (or crazy) enough to try, Shino would snub them with his glasses-obscured stare and remain silent.

Kiba, on the other hand, was abnormally quiet, sitting alone a few seats behind Shino.

Biting his lip – a bad habit he was striving to eliminate –, Kiba gazed at the Aburame's back despite his own will. He comforted himself by the fact that the Aburame didn't know he was observing him this way.

Shino didn't drop a word about what had happened between them, and Kiba was strangely thankful for Shino's reticence.

* * *

Kiba's eyes. They were cutting through him, pecking at his skin like nightmares that didn't want to fade away; like a foul reminder of Shino's victory, and guilt, and his rotten morality.

The Inuzuka couldn't spot it, naturally, but behind the barrier of Shino's glasses, the young Aburame planted a passing glance at him in return from time to time.

* * *

The dusk was falling down like heavy ashes from the dark sky.

Kiba's pride was warring with his cowardice when he entered _The Rainbow_ a week later. He thought about it as a coming for a sure social death. There were no doubts Aburame Shino would be there, laughing at him and ridiculing him in front of everyone at last. Right? It was what the Aburame should want, wasn't it?

Gutless thoughts begged Kiba to stay home, hidden with his head under the pillow. His dignity, however, hadn't allowed him to do so and led him back to the murky club once again. He wasn't ready to take the Aburame's scorn, it was too soon to stand face to face with the man... but Kiba was determined to handle it.

It would mean _some_ progress at least.

During the whole week, the Aburame didn't utter a sound. He didn't even look at Kiba. He simply continued his little game, pretending to be a hideous nerd who wore afwul and shapeless clothes. He easily went on, living his pitiful life.

Kiba was puzzled.

It was slowly consuming his sanity. His heart stopped every time Sasuke, Kankuro and Naruto got bored, deciding that shoving the Aburame's head into the locker would be fun, especially if they attempted to close the door as well. Or when they shouted insults at him. Or when Shino opened his mouth a little, and a cold, merciless fist crushed Kiba's entrails because of the fear he had because of the possible disclosure.

But the damned intellectual was like a mute mime.

Hinata, the sweet Hinata had started to turn away from Kiba in disgust, as he _had _to maintain his insolent attitude and bullied the ever-silent Aburame with a new vigour.

He snapped out of his mind, resting his shoulder against the same column he had leaned on back then. It was almost masochistic.

Kiba waited, and waited.

Shino never came.

Was it a punishment – was it a joke – was it nothing at all?

* * *

The night was approaching as Shino get at the arranged date in a teahouse.

He sipped at his favourite touareg, seated in heaps of cushions on the ground, and he studied the six years older man discreetly and noiselessly. The man was cultivated, likeable, and his face was was pleasantly good-looking. He reminded Shino of porcelain dolls a bit. Despite that, in his light brown eyes there was a dangerous spark of mischief.

Sasori said: "I got lucky. You're really something." He smiled and held Shino's chin up with his finger. Shino could read the satisfaction in Sasori's features for he didn't look away shyly. "I like bottoming, by the way, if that's what you're musing about right now," Sasori told him irresistibly.

Lamps' matte glow urged itself across the darkness.

Shino wedged himself on the backseat of Sasori's car and his fly was open sooner than Sasori slammed the door shut. The man sat on Shino's lap. Shino's eyelashes shadowed his sight, and Sasori's pale skin along with his vibrant scarlet hair blurred in front of Shino's eyes.

They climaxed together, and Shino had to silence himself by pressing his lips to Sasori's collarbone pathetically.

(_Kiba!_)

He hadn't properly kiss anyone past last eighteen years of his life. Now, he had slept with two men in a horribly short period of time. Shino didn't know if he liked this amazing degeneracy.

* * *

Kiba watched him blatantly; he could, because everyone else had already run into the gym. Whilst Shino procrastinated to undress in front of other boys and stayed behind intentionally and often, Kiba did it for the first time.

The Inuzuka toyed with his shirt in his hand absentmindedly, leaning casually against the locker with his head tilted back. His eyes were narrowed to the point they seemed passively furious, defiant and inquisitive. Kiba's loutish posture was practically screaming for Shino to speak.

Shino understood that Kiba was literally examining his body, searching for something familiar, something to recognize. The Inuzuka was relating the strange and attractive guy from the club to the half-naked Shino, noticing his inky black hair which he had finally freed from under the hood, and his unexpectedly thin, but strong arms.

Neither of them considered it weird that Shino catched Kiba staring.

Shino – for a second – didn't refrain himself from one and only arrogant gesture, sensing his superiority over Kiba. As he was, exposed and defenceless, he showed even more, disdainfully removing his glasses.

And Kiba knew the blackness from underneath Shino's inpenetrable spectacles. Unquestionably and unmistakably.

The fact that Kiba didn't beat him up for such move was insanely hanging above them.

* * *

Several red leaves flying from the near park fell to the wet pavement in front of the school.

Shino walked out of the building, his backpack put over both of his shoulders, strait-laced. He suddenly felt full of contradiction. Should he smile, when he saw Sasori's car and its red-haired owner in person? Should he speculate about was or wasn't it a one-night stand with him? (And weren't one-night stands with Kiba solely?)

Something between a world one, where Shino hadn't a sex life and the meaning of his existence was to be Inuzuka's victim, and a world two, where 'lust' wasn't a funny word, collided.

His characteristic indifference guided him to Sasori and he kissed the older man resolutely.

"Oi, Saso – ri...?" the voice dropped, dumbfounded.

"Hey, Sabaku," Sasori grimaced cutely at the guy.

"Is that _Aburame _with your tongue in his throat?" Kankuro exclaimed. "Since when have you been fucking losers?" he asked, being purely infantile and cruel.

"He fucks me," Sasori replied playfully and unashamedly, and Shino had to prohibit his blush from creeping onto his face.

Kankuro snorted, disinterested, while Naruto, standing beside him, began to laugh; the laughter wasn't harsh, though. _What a Sunshine_, Shino thought ironically.

Kiba's features went hard. Abruptly, he was dying to bark out he had slept with Shino. He desired to possess the Aburame the same morbid way he did before (and concurrently) the other boy fucked him.

He dismissed those ideas, convincing himself they were absurd and illogical.

* * *

There were dozens of fragments of Shino's sheepishness, and a slight embarrassment as he reached his orgasm. Sasori provocatively wiped his mouth, grinning, and he looked up at the breathless Aburame. After that he snuggled up Shino's chest, gently shoving Shino's cock back into his pants.

Shino was trembling. How was he supposed to be _used _to such treatment and delight?

"Mm, that's nice," Sasori mumbled somewhere near Shino's ear.

"Y-yes," Shino breathed out with difficulty, "but it is just – it is not anything deeper than this, am I right?"

Wasn't it more or less a genuine fear of... being with a person who isn't Kiba?

"It's up to you," Sasori smiled airily.

* * *

"You look depressed," stated Sasuke camly, icily, and sat up the Kiba's desk. He smirked loftily, looking down at Kiba, who buried his head under his hands while pressing his face towards the cool wooden material next to Sasuke's thigh.

"Really," Kiba snarled tauntingly.

"If there's someone pissing you off, destory them," he stated.

Typical Sasuke.

"I plan to."

Typical Kiba.

* * *

(Hello there. This story was originally written back in 2011, and although the first three chapters are currently translated - my native language is Czech - I am definitely going to need someone who could proof-read the last two chapters, and who could help me with grammar. Please, let me know if you're willing to take upon that task. *smiles shyly*)


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto was sitting on the floor, resting his back against the door of a shabby toilet cubicle. He tapped his foot several times, counting to ten with a _brutal_ slowness. Then he knocked on the door, hard. The sound of sloshing water could be heard from inside, and there was a loud, shuddering gasp after more splashing. A wild coughing accompanied Kiba's laughter until it was stopped by another splash. Kiba pushed Shino's head deeper into the toilet bowl.

Meanwhile Kankuro intently balanced on the top of the old central heating, trying to get closer to one of the narrow windows up near the ceiling. Pale daybreak was forcing its white light into the dirty lavatory through unwashed glass. Kankuro raised Shino's stolen glasses higher, bathing it in a thin streak of light; he then proceeded to inscribe "homo" into the flawless black surface of Shino's goggles with a clip he had stolen from Temari.

"You'll pay for every fucking touch, Aburame," Kiba whispered into Shino's ear when he once again pulled the boy's face out of the foul water. "You'll regret all the shit you've done to me."

His crude statement faded away without any response.

Kiba's ire increased drastically at that. He plunged Shino's head into the bowl so abruptly that Shino choked on disgusting water.

"Are ya gonna talk yet? I wanna know _what_ that stupid little game of yours was supposed to mean," he hissed, his mouth snarling.

Shino only rasped softly.

"Whatever," Kiba spat, and Shino held his breath in haste as Kiba proceeded to plunge his head back in the fetid toilet bowl for the last time.

That happened on Monday.

* * *

Sasuke twisted Shino's arms behind the indifferent boy's back, giving Kiba an opportunity to pull Shino's hood down. They then pressed Shino's exposed cheek onto a thick boiling pipe, conducting the heat from the cellar boiler to the whole school building.

It had taken Shino's mind several paralysed seconds until he realised the igneous pain, crawling from his cheekbone to the corner of his lips. He let out a loud, strident shout, and he felt like the hoarse tone ripped his lungs apart. Yet he didn't resist.

There remained a burning crimson stripe in his fair skin afterwards. Shino had withheld futile tears until he mechanically arrived home.

That happened on Tuesday.

* * *

Kiba and Kankuro were watching from a distance as the Aburame unlocked his locker; he paused, and fixed his hidden eyes on something within. Thereafter, he reached for the object that had caught him off guard, scooped up a few abominable black spiders into his palms, and released them impassively. They scattered away immediately with sickening swiftness.

Kankuro granted himself a light chuckle. "And _you _almost shat yourself when you had to bring the lil' vermin here."

"Piss off," said Kiba darkly.

That happened on Wednesday.

* * *

The bell rang on time. Shino sped up so he could make it to the class faster than professor Hatake (which was almost impossible _not_ to manage to do so). Suddenly, an unforeseen pain blossomed nastily through his arm as it collided with Kiba's sharp shoulder.

At the same moment, Naruto skilfully tripped him and Shino found himself landing on his back in an undignified position. His backpack ended up in Kiba's thievish hand. One of Uzumaki's undoubtedly muddy sneakers was printing the shape of its sole on Shino's dark olive green hoodie, not allowing him to stand up.

"No snack, Aburame?" Kiba drawled, not really interested in the food itself. He continued to examine Shino's personal stuff. "Ya trash."

Shino wordlessly lay there on the ground, even though Kiba and his comrades had left a while ago. His textbooks were littered around him, some of them torn.

That happened on Thursday.

* * *

After an alarmed kiss, Sasori withdrew back to the driver's seat. His airy smile, which Shino had gotten so used to, never appeared.

"Have you told your father?" he asked, worried.

"I _will not _tell him," Shino stated.

"Shino..." Sasori asked slowly, uncertain. "Why do you even tolerate them?"

Pretending to stare at the gloomily grey building of his school, Shino glanced away.

"You like Kiba." Sasori didn't ask; he merely resolved the grotesque situation. "And I can get it. You said that he was your first. I have yet met a person who wouldn't be this vulnerable towards their first man," he said and cupped Shino's chin, forcing the Aburame to look at him. "But there's a difference between being attached to someone, and being someone's goddamn punching bag."

Shino deviated from Sasori's touch. "Thank you for the lift," he noted tranquilly.

It wasn't really a reservedness in his voice. After all, Sasori knew Shino's apathetic persona too well not to sense the delicate gratitude under all layers of the Aburame's stolid mask.

* * *

Kiba was approaching the school compound, walking on the same path from the near subway as he always did. He could see the Redhead Problem saying goodbye to Kiba's raven-haired Enigma. He grimaced, his eyes narrowing automatically.

Despite his predilection for torturing the Aburame whenever he met him, having him mentally whipped and at his vicious mercy, he didn't come any closer. Kiba avoided Shino's tall silhouette instead.

Irritated, he entered the main hall and kept on walking briskly. Kankuro joined him shortly after, strutting rakishly as next to him. They soon got to the lockers; the view of Uzumaki kissing the shy Hyuuga hungrily only intensified Kiba's already upset mood.

Kiba genuinely had no idea where was the frustration coming from.

Naruto grinned at them.

"I was wondering," Kiba said rather nervously without bothering to greet his friends at first. "Does any of you know where that _Sasori_ guy lives?" he spat his name sourly.

"Why do you ask?" Kankuro's brow furrowed.

"I'm sick of bullying that Aburame kid. We're too childish. I'd like to go _further_, ya know," he retorted severely.

"That's bullshit," Naruto gave a dry laugh. "Look, it's only funny when it's harmless. I'm not gonna creep in his personal life, Kiba."

Kiba bit his lip, annoyed. "Kankuro?" Kiba fixed his hard stare at his other accomplice.

"Sasori's my _buddy_, Kiba. Forget that," he shrugged, refusing Kiba's thirst for violence, or revenge, or something else the Inuzuka couldn't truly label himself.

"What's wrong with you guys?!" Kiba snapped.

The helplessness constricted around him so tightly he thoughtlessly clenched his fists.

"What's wrong with _you_, K-Kiba-kun?" Hinata whispered.

* * *

Uchiha's elbow wedged itself in between Shino's shoulder blades viciously, and Shino's face collided with the graffiti-covered wall. The back lot of the school compound was dirty, murky, and there were smashed garbage cans everywhere, but Shino was more aware of the pressing pain in his largely sensitive left cheek. The wall structure had scraped several tiny scarlet wounds across his cheekbone.

But what disquieted Shino the most... was that Sasori had been waiting for him in front of the school park, and if he went to seek for him, he'd see him like this.

Ridiculous and lethargic.

Acting like a coward.

For Sasori, he wanted to be braver.

* * *

Kiba toyed with his slender jackknife, strolling calmly towards the parked car. He tilted his head down in an insolent manner, gazing right at the driver's vexing mug. Being his bold self, he knocked at the glass soundly.

The window slid lower. Bit by bit it enabled Kiba to spot short waves of cherry-red hair, soft hazel eyes (much kinder, and fairer than Kiba's), a subtle smile (much more human than Kiba's), and a pair of pallid hands placed casually on the steering wheel (hands nowhere near as calloused as Kiba's).

He had to eliminate him. He had to _liquidate_ him.

"...Oi," Kiba uttered, his tone as unfriendly as it could ever be. He momentarily paused, unwillingly taking in the scent of wood and vanilla that was Sasori's. The unfamiliar aroma effortlessly overrode the heavy smell of an autumnal air and decayed leaves, even if for just a minute. "You must be Sasori," he said finally.

"Must I?" the redhead returned playfully.

Despite his temper, he glossed over the silly remark.

"Name's Kiba. I'm sure Aburame has mentioned me at some point," he drawled almost lazily. "Actually, he is over there right now," Kiba nonchalantly gesticulated behind him, pointing at the corner of the greyish building. "But he won't be arriving any soon. You should leave, if you don't want him to get hurt."

"Oh?" Sasori inquired serenely, never letting his smile to fade away.

It was seriously getting on Kiba's nerves. He forbade himself from worrying at his lower lip as he was forced to step back – otherwise the car door would hit him. Sasori got out of the automobile, towering over Kiba slightly in the process.

He briskly grabbed Kiba's wrist. The combination of Sasori's unexpected strength and Kiba's surprise coerced him to drop the jackknife, leaving a nauseating taste of powerlessness in Kiba's mouth. His eyes went wide.

"Trying to frighten somebody who's stronger than you isn't very clever... is it," Sasori whispered. "I could destroy you right off, kiddo."

"Really, huh?" Kiba tilted his head defiantly. "Go on, then. Take a chance," he growled.

The grip on his wrist increased.

"A-Aburame's gonna _let _us beat him up. He's such a pussy," Kiba hissed, anything but dispassionate against Sasori's force. "Are ya gonna play hero while my friend's breaking his bones? Is that what you want? Is it, huh?!"

"You miserable punk." Sasori smiled again. This time, however, very dangerously. "You pitiful, spoiled child..."

"Let's see how much ya care about him." He tried to shake Sasori's squeeze off, vainly. "Leave. Don't ever come back. Give up on him!"

Kiba suddenly fell into a shallow puddle, grimacing, as he was shoved aside by Sasori. The redhead looked down on him scornfully. Kiba's gaze wasn't any less hateful.

"Are you telling me that you and your inane friends will stop this whole shit if I disappear?" he uttered, mocking Kiba with his constantly calm expression.

Kiba scoffed. "Take a chance," he repeated.

A fragment of arrogance melted into Kiba's voice once more. He was rotten. Oh, so rotten.

Listening to the weakening sound of Sasori's retreating car made him glance up at the steel coloured sky, giving a free barking laugh.

_Liquidated_.

Around the corner, Shino quitted even his mental fight – crestfallen – as he completely capitulated, his fleeting urge to resist forgotten and forsaken.

That happened on Friday.


End file.
